Pakomio Maori: red-haired, blue-eyed key to Easter Island's prehistoric past

Anyone who spends more than a few days on Easter Island and can converse in Spanish with the islanders soon becomes aware that they are endlessly fascinated by the variations in each others' skin colors. Katherine Scoresby Routledge, the English archaeologist, who spent almost 17 months on the island in 1914-15, was the first to note this peculiarity in print. In her book The Mystery of Easter Island. she said that Roggeveen's description of the islanders as being 'of all shades of colour' was 'still accurate' and that they themselves were 'very conscious of the variations'.